Sajid Javid presents the 2015 FIRST Responsible Capitalism Awards
17th December 2015
Ana Botín DBE, Executive Chairman of Banco Santander receives the Responsible Capitalism Award for her successful leadership of one of the world’s largest banks and most committed corporate contributors to education.
Jochen Zeitz, Executive Chair of the B Team, was awarded the Responsible Capitalism Advocacy Award for his pioneering environmental and social work through the B team, Kering, and the Zeitz Foundation.
The SME Dahrendorf Responsible Capitalism Award was jointly awarded to Ivy Wroe, Managing Director of Resin Surfaces Ltd for her sustainable product range, and John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby, Co-Founders of Leon for introducing a healthy fast food alternative and successfully lobbying for more nutritious diets for schoolchildren.
The FIRST
Responsible Capitalism Awards 2015 were presented by Rt Hon. Sajid Javid MP at a special ceremony held at Lancaster House in London. The ceremony was attended by over 300 prominent business leaders, Parliamentarians and Ambassadors. Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills commented “As a proud capitalist, I’d like to congratulate the winners of this year’s award and thank them for their dedication to responsible capitalism. The winners have not only achieved commercial success, created jobs and paid taxes but they have also improved public health, supported education and protected the environment. This is the mark of success and they should be seen as an example for all businesses to follow, large and small.”
When making the Award, the Judges, chaired by Lord Woolf, are looking for leaders who have consistently demonstrated social responsibility as an integral part of commercial success, examining in particular the manner in which their business interacts both with the environment and the communities in which they operate.
In his opening speech, Lord Woolf, Chairman of FIRST Judging Panel said “Tonight is the 16th Annual First Awards ceremony for Responsible Capitalism. We are all very sad that this will be the final year during which we had the benefit of the late Rt Hon Lord Howe’s being a member of our judging panel. He helped us to select our winners from a superb range of extremely talented and responsible representatives of a wide range of businesses. In the future we
will very much miss Lord Howe’s wise guidance on our panel.”
On receiving the FIRST Award for Responsible Capitalism, Ana Botín DBE, Executive Chairman of Banco Santander said “This is a tremendous honour for all of us at Santander. My view of responsible capitalism is very simple. It means that every business must have a social purpose as well as a commercial one. At Santander, we strive to be simple,
personal and fair in everything we do, in order to help people and businesses prosper. That culture is our most important asset. And it is the reason why I am so happy to collect this award on behalf of everyone at Santander.”
The Responsible Capitalism Advocacy Award was awarded to Zochen Zeitz, Executive Chair of the B Team, who said “I am very honored to receive this award. It is our duty as humans, responsible citizens and business leaders to protect and preserve the environment. But the case for action is not just a moral one; we are creating a sustainable
enterprise because it is fundamentally good for business and society in the long run. The private sector must innovate to lead the transition to a clean economy.”
On jointly receiving the FIRST Responsible Capitalism Dahrendhorf Award for the SME sector, Ivy Wroe said “I am extremely honoured and grateful to accept the Responsible Capitalism Dahrendorf Award this evening. It is our ideal to work with our suppliers to manufacture products of low V.O.C and more environmental properties. As a small manufacturer, it is sometime times difficult to move forward with innovation, but that is exactly what we are doing. It is a testament to my colleagues, family and my company that Resin Surfaces has progressed thus far.”
As joint winners of the receiving the FIRST Responsible Capitalism Dahrendhorf Award for the SME sector, Henry Dimbleby and
John Vincent, the Co-Founders of Leon said “We started Leon to make it easier for people to eat well. In the summer of 2012, we were asked to write a report by Michael Gove on food in schools, and as a result of the Plan, many things are improving. Practical cooking is on the curriculum for the first time, and all infants are provided nutritious school lunches. We believe that capitalism
without responsibility is cheating. The ‘results are all that matter’ mantra both too narrowly defines the results and also gives no weight to the impact of how those results are achieved.”